I too am just getting into the SIP stuff. Maybe someone can write a SIP 101 guide as to the cost benefits and call quality benefits. I have been trying VOIP.ms and the service offering and feature set is very promising. So if you are not familiar with them take a look. You can setup an account without any funding to see all of the features. While this has nothing to do with a GSM card it has everything to do with SIP. I would like to learn more. I have an iPhone now which is not unlocked. With that said Skype on it works great and I have an app called sipPhone that lets me do VOIP/SIP stuff. When I travel abroad I will bring my Treo 750 which is unlocked and use Telna.

So to everyone who has contributed ideas to date. Thank you! To Telna for attempting to integrate them thank you as well. All of this looks very promising.

I would be happy to host anything folks would write on my blog.

Lastly I am a former Celtrek customer and look forward to trying Telna.

Just want to mention that I used Telna on a recent trip and I was quite satisfied. I used it in Nigeria and France. Mostly for incoming calls (My AT&T sim forwarded to it) and a couple outgoing calls. No problems at all.

An observation though. On the voicemail menu, pressing '0' gives one the option to record a personal gretting, however this does not get saved. It still plays the system greeting when the ne reaches VM regardless. Not a big deal though.

Is there anyway to hide the callback requirement? Some people just can't handle the simplicity of that. I have seen other sim providers offer "comfort callback" for Windows Mobile phones. Not sure about other OS's.

Keep up the innovations. I ordered the card but have not activated it yet.

Telna lowers yearly fee from $49 to $19
 

I do not think most folks use Telna, however I just received this email from telna. Makes them a little more attractive. I consider the yearly fee the cost of the DID. Not bad at all at a little less than $2/month.


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Hello,

after reaching our first milestone of telna Mobile subscribers faster than expected, we are able to lower the annual fee for telna Mobile from $49 to $19, effective immediately.

In case you didn't know: telna Mobile is our service for international travelers. It allows you to be reachable on your cellphone in 174 countries on an American phone number, receive free SMS messages and place inexpensive calls back home or to anywhere in the world. Now for only $19 per year.
To learn more about telna Mobile, visit telna Mobile - Low cost cellular service for international travelers(international sim card for reduced roaming for inbound and outbound calls while abroad)

To be fair to existing subscribers who pioneered the service, we have decided to issue a $30 credit to every existing customer who paid the $49 annual fee, which can be used to place calls with any of our services.

Telecom North America

Receive SMS on Telna Mobile
 

I have been using the Telna Mobile SIM card for about 6 months and have generally been satisfied with the service. However, I have been fustrated by the inability to receive SMS text messages. I know that a sender can go to the Telna website and send from there but that is way to cumbersome. Besides, I would like to use the voicemail from Google Voice so I need to be able to receive SMS messages either directly or thru an email gateway. Can anyone offer a suggestion?

Any further feedback on Telna?
 

Am thinking about using Telna, but have a few questions... Have they gotten SMS to work? Also, they state that inbound SMS is free, but I have not seen on their site what outbound SMS costs are... Any idea? Can you SMS a Telna customer via the US DID or do you need to use the "global" number?


Thanks!

I have not tried to send sms from the card. However, I sent sms to the DID from several providers, including tmobile, google voice, and AT&T. All worked except for AT&T, whjich bounced back instantly with an invalid number mesage. I first tried this a few months ago. I tried again from AT&T today, and it still bounced back instantly. BTW, nowhere do they disclose your global number. I guess one can try to send an sms and see what shows on the receiving end if it goes through.


EDIT: I just tried to send an sms and it did not go through. I got an instant sms that sms capability is NOT supported yet.

Hi

Sorry I have not paid attention to the forum recently, but inbound text messages should work from all US mobile carriers on the telna Mobile numbers. If it doesn't work in a particular case that would be something we can open a trouble ticket for and fix.

Definitely does not work sending with AT&T. I have tried it several times. It bounces back instantly with the text message "Error Invalid Number. Please re-send using a valid 10 digit mobile number or valid short code. Looks like AT&T does not recognize it as a valid number.

Sending from tmobile US and google voice worked.